1. Field
The inventive concept relates to vertical or 3-dimensional semiconductor memory devices and to methods of fabricating the same. More particularly, the inventive concept relates to vertical random access memory (RAM) devices and to methods of fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Various methods of vertically forming a plurality of memory cells on a substrate have been developed to overcome limits of planar semiconductor memory devices in terms of the integration density that such planar devices can provide. One example of a semiconductor device having a plurality of vertically stacked memory cells is a vertical resistive random access memory (Re-RAM). A vertical Re-RAM has a stack of horizontal layers including horizontal electrode layers spaced one above the other on a substrate, and a vertical structure extending through the stack of horizontal layers. The vertical structure includes a vertical electrode layer and a data storage layer interposed between the vertical electrode layer and the stack of horizontal layers. The integrity of the data storage layer is crucial to the reliability and performance of the Re-RAM.